Exciting end to NBA season inspires Parsons, Rockets teammates to think big

Of all the times Chandler Parsons has watched the NBA Finals, and all the trophy presentations and celebrations he has seen, this year’s seemed different.

As scintillating as the Miami-San Antonio series and Thursday’s Game 7 was, Parsons found them unsatisfying. If anything, they left him hungry, a feeling he had to share.

The Heat players were still on the AmericanAirlines Arena floor when Parsons sent out a simple tweet:

“Next season. …”

But Parsons didn’t stop there.

Not long after his Twitter posting, Parsons sent a text message to his Rockets teammates about his plans not just to watch the NBA Finals next season but to participate in them.

“I couldn’t help but picture us there and playing that game,” Parsons said. “I was thinking there is no reason that couldn’t and shouldn’t be us next year.”

Parsons still wasn’t done bouncing messages across America.

Rockets players have a thread that allows them to share text messages as a group this offseason. Parsons, however, added a separate thought for Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard, the Rockets’ primary free-agent target.

“After watching that last night,” Parsons said, “I hit him with, ‘Come to Houston. That could be us.’ ”

That wasn’t anything new for Howard. He has heard plenty from Parsons this offseason.

“I talk to Dwight every day,” Parsons said. “I’ve created a relationship with him, where I feel like we’re very close. He hits me up about everything. I’ve covered pretty much every question he’s had. I basically tell him, ‘We have a chance to be really good without you next year. We’re going to have a good season. Why not come and join us, join our core guys who are for sure to be here and make us great, make us contend for a championship?’

“That’s the main point I’ve gotten from talking to him. He wants to win. He wants to win rings. It’s obvious there is no better fit, no better team or opportunity to do that than with us.”

Excited about future

After tying with the Lakers for seventh place in the Western Conference and going out in the first round of the playoffs as the eighth seed, the Rockets appear to have a long way to go to reach contender’s status. But the players believe they aren’t that far from making their own championship run.

“You look at games, and you wonder how you’d be if you were put in the same position,” guard Patrick Beverley said. “A lot of things came into my head, wondering if the Houston Rockets were playing for the championship, what would happen. After every game watching that, just watching Tony Parker, it forces me to go to the gym. It made me thirsty to go to the gym some late nights.

“It forces you to try to improve some things in the summer. We understand it’s a big season for us, especially with free agency. If we are able to pick up some players, it will be great, but we as individuals can continue to get better and then bring that together collectively. The core guys, we’re excited. We’re excited to see what is going to happen. We’re excited to get started.”

Still, there is a long way to go before the Rockets can get started with adding Howard, a key move in improving from a team seeded eighth to becoming a conference contender. That process, despite Parsons’ recruiting efforts, has not really begun. But until it does, he said the talk among the players has been about offseason workouts and making plans to gather in Orlando, Fla., next month to train together after the summer league ends.

Motivated to improve

On Thursday, however, the focus was on motivation, with the Spurs and Heat providing plenty.

“The last couple of years and growing up watching the Finals, it was kind of cool seeing it,” Parsons said. “This year was totally different. Although it was a great game and I’m a huge fan of basketball, this year I had a knot in my stomach.

“Obviously, we only got to the first round this year, but we’re still young. I thought the experience we got this season was so valuable going forward. Everyone will have a whole summer to get better. Knowing our staff, they’re trying to do anything they can to make us better and make that jump by adding pieces.

“Talking to our players, everyone is working so hard. I know this is the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. Understanding management will do anything they can to make us better, that’s where my head was last night — just picturing us there.”